8 New Facts About World of Warcraft: Forever from the Kotaku Interview

World of Warcraft: Forever has been the loudest thing at BlizzCon 2026, and the interviews coming out of the show are filling in the details the announcement left vague. Kotaku sat down with lead designer Tim Jones and lead combat designer Mike Nuthals, and eight points stand out.

Classes Stay Inside Their Lanes

The unusual class and role combinations from Season of Discovery – tanking shamans, healing mages – are not coming at launch. The team wants Forever to stay simple and approachable, and those experiments cut against that goal. They have not ruled it out permanently, but it would need clear player demand first.

Raid Sizes Are Far More Flexible

This is arguably the most significant structural change. Every raid tier will include at least one 10-player raid and one 20-player raid, occasionally alongside a 40-player raid. Anyone who has tried to hold a 40-person roster together in Classic will recognise how much friction this removes – raiding no longer requires a small army.

Rewards Have to Be Earned

The designers want valuable rewards to reflect genuine effort, which produces one change that will divide opinion: the cost of learning riding skill goes up, while the cost of buying the mount itself comes down. The money still leaves your pocket, but the barrier moves onto the skill rather than the mount.

Meeting Stones Are Not Summoning Stones

Meeting stones will sit at dungeon and raid entrances, but they will not summon anyone. If you want a group member brought across the map, you need a warlock. The stated intent is to push players into social interaction rather than letting the system solve it for them.

Addon and Automation Limits

Two related points:

• The same computational addon restrictions that apply in Midnight will apply in Forever, so the modern boundaries on what addons can calculate carry over
• There will be no one-button rotation assistant of the kind modern WoW offers – you play your own rotation

PvP Gets Seasonal Progression

PvP will run on a seasonal progression system. Players earn points from battlegrounds and open-world combat, climb ranks, and unlock both practical rewards – gear with actual stats – and cosmetic ones. It is a considerable departure from the original honour grind and looks far more forgiving of limited playtime.

The Name Is the Design Document

“Forever” is meant literally. Unlike the seasonal format of WoW Classic’s Seasons, characters and their achievements persist indefinitely – nothing you build gets wiped when a cycle ends.

The trade-off is that the level cap stays at 60 permanently. All future development runs horizontally, broadening what exists at level 60 rather than adding levels on top. Whether that holds over years of content is the question everyone will be watching.

FAQ

WILL THERE BE 40-PLAYER RAIDS IN FOREVER?

Sometimes. Every tier guarantees a 10-player and a 20-player raid, with 40-player raids appearing occasionally rather than as the default.

DOES THE LEVEL CAP EVER GO ABOVE 60?

No. The cap is intended to stay at 60 permanently, with progression expanding horizontally instead.

CAN I SUMMON GROUP MEMBERS TO A DUNGEON?

Only with a warlock. Meeting stones exist at instance entrances but do not function as summoning stones.

ARE SEASON OF DISCOVERY CLASS COMBINATIONS RETURNING?